Burning Vengeance 2: You Are (Not) Supreme
by Gundam Kaiser
Summary: In exchange for his mother, Shinji would become the Devil's bounty hunter. Those were the terms of The Deal. Now, however, the war for humanity's souls is about to heat up, and only time will tell if the Ghost Rider is ready for the trials that await him. The long-awaited continuation of "Burning Vengeance."


**And as I promised, here is the continuation.**

* * *

At two in the morning, the sky was pitch black. Neither the moon, nor the stars seemed to be out.

In a condemned building on the outskirts of Tokyo-3, however, an even darker situation was beginning to unfold.

A host of candles illuminated the blood-drawn pentagram on the floor, in the center of which lay a naked woman, bound and gagged. Tears were streaming down her face. Her boyfriend's lifeless, mutilated body had been unceremoniously tossed in a corner.

"Daaaaaaaaamn, maaaaan, but that is _one_ foxy babe! Where'd ya find her, Ichiro?"

Ichiro, like his assorted friends in the room, dressed and acted like a member of a stereotypical biker gang. Pulling down on his sunglasses, he raised a single eyebrow in amusement at the question. "...Go, my man, you need to start paying a little attention. I mean, you _know_ you can find sexy little numbers just like this one pretty much _every other night_ , yeah? All it takes is a little bit of dedication in stalking the park."

He grinned, then. "...and a steady supply of chloroform, yeah?"

Go and Ichiro had a good laugh, before a third man rushed into the room, almost tripping over himself in excitement. "Guys! Guys! I found that old grimoire I was talking about! You know, the book with the demon-summoning rituals and shit in it!"

Ichiro cheered. "Awesome! Everything's all set up nice and perfect, yeah, Ryo?!"

Go anxiously began wringing his hands, unable to take his eyes off of the captive woman. "...but, does it have to be a virgin sacrifice?"

Ryo blinked beneath his glasses, before peering again at the instructions written in the tome. "...actually," he said after several seconds, "it makes a point of saying that sacrificing a virgin will screw up the ritual."

Go beamed as if he'd been told that Christmas was coming early, while Ichiro knelt down until his face was mere centimeters from the woman's. "Well, you heard the man," he said with a grimace that was completely and utterly fake. "And sad to say, but _there's only one way to be sure_."

The woman's struggles intensified for a moment. Go kicked her in the ribs, before Ichiro continued his rant. "You see, what with these Angels coming down to exterminate humanity, it's our duty to the human race to help fight the good fight, yeah? And the only way to beat an Angel," he said with a grin, "is with a Devi-"

 **"ALL OF YOU. GUILTY."**

At that moment, a burning fist _exploded_ through the wall, punching Ryo's head clean off of his shoulders in the same movement.

 **"YOU WANTED HELL'S ATTENTION?"**

A second later, there was the loud _bang_ of a gunshot, and Go was promptly shredded to pieces.

An ominous series of footsteps loudly echoed through the room, before a figure emerged from the dust cloud.

 **"YOU GOT IT."**

The woman's eyes glazed over as her conscious mind retreated into insanity. Ichiro opened his mouth, only for the scream of terror to die in his throat as Ghost Rider put one hand around his neck, before effortlessly hoisting him into the air.

Ichiro wriggled about, eventually managing to get enough space to breathe. "DUDE, SHE WAS LITERALLY _ASKING_ FOR IT!"

Ghost Rider paused for a moment, before turning his eyeless gaze on the woman. Peering into her soul, the Spirit of Vengeance saw all of her misdeeds.

 **"...Hamuko Shiratori. Got bored with her husband. Cheated on him with a yakuza. Had the husband murdered. Began a career of seducing innocents in order to take advantage of them."**

As the hellfire in his body began to expand with his rage, Ghost Rider absently snapped Ichiro's neck and tossed him to the side. **"Sold your own children on the black market. Because they were _clingy_ _._ "**

With deliberate slowness, Ghost Rider placed one hand on Hamuko's pretty little throat, before dragging her up to look him in the eyes.

 **"GUILTY."**

"N-no, oh please God just let me-"

 **"God isn't here,"** Ghost Rider snapped, causing the woman to flinch. **"I am. And unlike God, _I do not love you._ "**

The unholy lights in his eyes began to swell, and Hamuko's whimpers turned to screams.

* * *

Trudging his way into class the next morning, Shinji attempted in futility to bite back a yawn.

"And just where were _you_ yesterday, Ikari?!"

Shinji nearly jumped out of his skin from alarm. "C-class rep?! What are you doing, suddenly ambushing me like that?!"

Hikari gave him a stiff pointer finger. " _You_ were absent from _class_ yesterday, troublemaker. On behalf of our teacher -"

"The senile old man who can barely pay attention to what's going on right in front of him?"

"On behalf of our teacher," she continued while pretending that she'd never been interrupted, "I'm waiting on your excuse."

 _"Yet another giant monster referred to as an 'Angel' has been defeated. Unusual for the cases thus far, this one appeared in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and engaged the U.N. Navy in battle, before a new Evangelion revealed itself and made short work of the Angel."_

Shinji glanced over in Kensuke's direction - or more specifically, to the news broadcast playing on his laptop.

"Had one hell of a fever," he absently muttered. "Felt like my skull was on fire."

Hikari stepped around, placing herself squarely back in the middle of Shinji's field of vision. "Is that _right_ ," she growled. _You aren't getting out of this **that** easily, you little truant!_

Shinji nodded, irritated that she was distracting him from the news about NERV. "Yeah, it is right."

"If you were home sick yesterday, then why was the place _totally empty_ when I went there to drop off your assignments after school?"

 _Because I was making your city a better place to live in. Deal with it._ "I got better," he muttered, "but by then it was too late to bother coming in."

At that time, the door suddenly opened, and a girl Shinji had never met before entered the room.

Almost immediately, the girl noticed Shinji, and her eyes visibly widened by a fraction.

Shinji, meanwhile, coiled back in alarm. And certainly, her blue hair and red eyes were unusual. But the most unsettling thing about her was -

 _WHAT THE FUCK?! SHE LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE MY MOM!_

Hikari noticed this little interplay. "Oh, that's right, you two haven't been introduced yet."

To the girl, she said: "This is Shinji Ikari, a new transfer student who showed up while you were out because of injuries from that car accident. He's a smart-mouthed delinquent, but he doesn't seem to be _too_ horrible of a person."

Shinji scowled at the class representative in annoyance at her choice of words while introducing him, but was ignored. "Shinji, say hello to Rei Ayanami. She's a quiet young lady who keeps to herself, so I don't want you to bother her."

Shinji glanced back at Rei, noting that her bandages matched up with what he recalled of the orange Evangelion's wounds from when he'd fought Sachiel. _This girl... is she the pilot of that EVA? If so, then this could be how I get into NERV!_

Rei surprised everyone, then, when she gave a polite and formal bow. "Shinji Ikari," she said in a flat monotone. "It is good to meet you."

Shinji forced himself to smile, trying to make some kind of a positive impression. "Rei Ayanami. You're my senior classmate, so that means I'll be in your care, right? Let's please get along together."

Rei nodded, and then blandly went to her seat. For Shinji, the remainder of the day was nerve-racking.


End file.
